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Early-career language teachers, who are struggling with transitory stages of identity development from students to teachers, can experience an array of negative emotions known as identity tensions. Coping strategies are used by resilient teachers to overcome these tensions. However, the nature and dynamics of such coping strategies employed by EFL teachers are still under-researched in the Iranian context. In order to address this gap, the present exploratory mixed-methods study probed the coping strategies Iranian EFL teachers most frequently use by first interviewing 16 teachers and, subsequently, administrating a developed questionnaire to a cohort of 150 participants. Thematic analysis and between-groups analyses of t-tests and ANOVAs were used for the qualitative and quantitative phases of the study respectively. The results of both phases revealed that Iranian EFL teachers tend to use active coping strategies significantly more often than passive ones. Also, it was shown that female teachers as well as more experienced teachers above the average age of 28 use more active strategies than their younger colleagues. However, type of training did not seem to play a significant role in their choices, which implies a need for a more systematic integration of coping strategy instruction in training programs. The findings of this study can help English teacher trainers, supervisors, and novice teachers form a deeper insight of coping strategies to deal with identity tensions.    
 

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Transmission-based teacher education programs have mostly dominated the field of teaching English as a foreign language. Considering the prominent position of critical pedagogical principles in prospective teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles and responsibilities, there is a need for detailed investigations of teacher education programs informed by the tenets of critical pedagogy in prospective teachers’ professional identity. There has been a paucity of research that addresses the impact of such programs on prospective teachers’ professional identity in an EFL context; therefore, this study intends to address the gap. This qualitative study was conducted to examine the role of a critical-informed teacher education program in influencing prospective EFL teachers’ professional identity construction. Participants were 19 prospective teachers whose process of professional identity construction were analysed through reflective journals, class discussions, and semi-structured interviews before and after the program. Results of the study revealed three major shifts in prospective teachers’ professional identity: “from a student’s voice to a teacher’s voice”, “from an uncritical attitude to developing agency”, “from a narrow view of ELT to a broad view”. To foster critical ideas in EFL prospective teachers, the study recommends the use of dialogic discussions and written reflective tasks in teacher education programs.

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The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which academic admission criteria predict prospective teachers’ competency during teacher education program. To this end, a total of 186 prospective teachers majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Teacher Education University in Iran were selected as the convenience sample of the study. They completed two questionnaires, Prospective Teachers’ Professional Attitude and Prospective Teachers’ Professional Identity. The participants’ high school GPA, university entrance score, and university GPA were also obtained. The results of Pearson product-moment correlations indicated a significant positive correlation among academic measures of high school GPA, university entrance score, and university GPA but no significant correlation was detected between these academic measures and nonacademic measures of professional identity and professional attitude. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the two admission criteria had just predictive validity for university academic achievement; however they could not predict prospective teachers’ professional attitude or their professional identity. Based on the findings of this study, it would be concluded that the academic measures used for admitting candidates into the program have low predictive validity for predicting non-academic attributes of teacher competenc